Mobile cancer scare ‘all in your head’
MOBILE phones appear to be “very safe”, says an expert who points out that people were initially suspicious about mains power and microwaves.
Professor Rodney Croft, executive director of The Australian Centre for Radiofrequency Bioeffects Research (ACRBR), says concerns over the location of mobile phone base stations should similarly dissipate over time.
“There really isn’t a great deal of difference between your basic FM radio antenna and your base station’s antennas,” Prof Croft says.
“Radio transmissions have been around for a long, long time and people don’t seem to mind being exposed to that.”
Prof Croft, who is Professor of Health Psychology at the University of Wollongong, says humans have “a tendency to be suspicious of all new things”.
“When microwave ovens first came out there was a great deal of suspicion about them, when mains power came out there was a great deal of suspicion about it,” he says.
“People do move on . . . providing, of course, no science comes out showing it is more dangerous. And certainly the centre’s view is that’s not likely to happen.”
The World Health Organisation (WHO) is soon to release its Interphone study, a decade-long investigation into the health implications of mobile phone use.
The report could be released before the year’s end, and there is speculation it will draw a definitive link between long-term mobile phone use and an increased risk of brain tumours.
But Prof Croft rejects this.
He says the WHO is expected to discount some of the research which highlighted cancer links as methodologically flawed and “clearly not correct”.
“But it will still leave open the possibility that long-term effects have not been looked at adequately, and may turn out to be a problem,” Prof Croft says.
“It all seems to be pointing to the same thing… that there is not a problem (with mobile phone use).
“Our perspective is that we don’t see any science indicating a health effect. It really looks very safe.”
Prominent Sydney brain surgeon Dr Charlie Teo last month warned people should “err on the side of safety” and take simple steps to reduce their exposure.
Dr Teo says mobile phones should be used on loudspeaker while other electronic devices, such as a clock radio, should be placed at the base instead of the head of the bed.